Thanks for reading the April 2026 issue of This Awful Awesome Life. I hope you try the recipe for Garlic Mushroom Quinoa in our “Twelve Months of Grain.”
Previous issues of This Awful Awesome Life are available to read on our website. Go to www.thisawfulawesomelife.com and start scrolling or you can enter specific search criteria.
May is Mystery Month in This Awful Awesome Life.
Orlando Bartro, Tony Valerino, and I will be back with more interesting articles for you.
Our featured author with a May birthday will be P.D. James, the creator of the mystery series featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh and the Cordelia Gray Mysteries. She also penned the dystopian novel, Children of Men which was adapted into the film of the same name starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore.
We’re moving some of our regular features around to shake things up a bit and keep you on your toes. I’m also hoping to expand our Artist Page to feature more talented creatives. Some people manage to elevate their work to the level of an artform, and we want to support their efforts.
I’ll have more streaming and reading recommendations. “What’s in a Word?” will be back but we’ll be alternating some of our content. We’ll continue the monthly quizzes to exercise our brains, and we’ll continue reviewing books.
For the time being, I’m holding off on a new subscription-based Patreon account featuring short stories and chapter installments of my books as I write them. I also hoped to provide opportunities for book discussions and narrations of short stories. It’s something I want to do, but pesky life keeps getting in the way. When and if this happens, it will remain separated from our online magazine which will always be free and available to everyone. I’m considering the Patreon option because traditional and Indy publishing have changed so drastically in recent years. Now that AI has entered the equation, more changes are coming.
Stay safe. Stay well. You are important, and you are loved.
All my best,
Fran
Answers to the April 2026 “Let’s Talk About the Weather Quiz.”
Washington is the U.S. state with the highest annual rainfall. False – the correct answer is Hawaii.
The highest recorded annual rainfall in any place in any one year in the world is 11,621 mm (38.12 feet or 457.51 inches). True
Climate change does not affect rainfall patterns in the United States and across the world. False - Climate change has made rainy days less frequent, but more intense. Higher temperatures increase evaporation which dries out vegetation and soil. It also causes weather shifts, loss of vegetation, and flash flooding.
Petrichor is the earthy scent that arises when rain hits dry soil. True
Nevada is the U.S. state with the lowest annual rainfall. True
The top five rainiest U.S. states are Washington, Oregon, Mississippi, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania, False – the top five rainiest U.S. states are Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
The rain capital of the world is Iquitos, Peru in the Amazon rainforest. False Cherrapunji (Sohra), Meghalaya, India – one of the wettest places on Earth is known as the rain capital of the world.
Birds fly low before it rains because low atmospheric pressure makes flying more labor intensive. True
Birds fly low before it rains because low atmospheric pressure forces insects closer to the ground making it easier for birds to hunt their prey. True
Cows lying down can mean wet weather is on the way. True
A ring around the moon blocks out the rain. False - A ring around the moon is composed of high wispy cirrostratus clouds made of ice crystals that form during large-scale convergence. As the convergence rises, it cools and forms water vapor causing rain.
The Hawaiian language has only one word for rain. False - It has over 200 terms for the rains found across the archipelago.
The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is considered the driest non-polar place on Earth with some areas recording no rainfall in over 400 years. True
Water in the form of a gas is water vapor. True
In rare cases, strong winds or waterspouts can lift small creatures like frogs or fish out of the water and drop them in other places. True